The Nutcracker

Keller Auditorium

In a Nutshell

Tchaikovsky’s classic score twirls to life in a holiday ballet which sees young Clara venture into a dreamland of snow and ice

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The Nutcracker

Based on a novel by 19th-century romantic fabulist E.T.A. Hoffman, The Nutcracker weaves a magical tale of holiday adventure around one of the most recognizable scores in the ballet repertoire. It begins when young Clara receives a nutcracker from her godfather, a wizardly toymaker named Drosselmeyer. Sneaking downstairs to see the toy after everyone else has gone to bed, she suddenly finds herself caught in the middle of a pitched battle between the toys and an army of mice. After saving the nutcracker with a well-thrown shoe to the Mouse King’s head, Clara and her now-living prince venture into the Land of Snow and the Land of Sweets to celebrate.

Throughout their adventures, Tchaikovsky’s dazzling inventiveness propels the dances of nimble flowers and regal fairy queens. The “Waltz of the Snowflakes” floats weightlessly above the angelic voices of a youth choir, whereas the “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy” tiptoes to the haunting, music-box chimes of a celesta. A medley of exotic national dances—including a Spanish bolero and Russian Trepak—add to the phantasmagoric celebration before the whole dream ends, as all dreams must.

Oregon Ballet Theatre

Since debuting in 1989, the Oregon Ballet Theatre has built its reputation on two seemingly opposed elements: strict balletic classicism and newly commissioned works. Now the theatre enters a new era under artistic director Kevin Irving, whose background spans both classical and contemporary performances. As a dancer, Irving appeared with scores of companies, including the Alvin Ailey Training Ensemble and Elisa Monte Dance Company. In 1994, he retired from the stage to take a position as ballet master and head of the artistic department with Nacho Duato’s Compañia Nacional de Danza in Spain. Irving looks to take the Oregon Ballet Theatre to new heights, riffing off rave reviews from the Oregonian's Bob Hicks, who wrote that the theatre's Swan Lake is "a work of sumptuous geometric balances that echo the story's mirror-image theme."